International Policy Analysis Unit ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Working Group on European Integration Working paper No. 10 September 2001 The exercise of European competencies is the real problem, not the allocation of competencies in the treaties Nine points for the 2004 Intergovernmental Conference Compared with the challenges of globalisation and the demands made by the citizens on the European Union, the reach of EU competencies does not appear to be excessive at all. Indeed, in some areas such as foreign and security policy, they tend, if anything, to be too limited. The question of how to allocate powers between the European Union and the Member States is unjustly the focal point of the current debate on competencies, though. What needs to be improved first and foremost is the way in which the Union exercises its competencies. Of course, this also involves the issue of political power. The following steps should be taken at the 2004 Intergovernmental Conference based on a comprehensive prior clarification of the competence order as laid down in the treaties: Improving the existing competence order 1.Making the competence provisions in the treaties more understandable and more visible; 2.Identifying competence categories already set out in the treaty(exclusive, directive and supplementary powers); 3.Resolving specific problems related to specific competencies. Improving the way in which competencies are exercised 4.Reviewing the proportionality of specific practices of the Commission and Council(such as informal obligations on the part of the Member States to report to the Commission or the open co-ordination strategy); 5.Improving the transparency of legislative decision- making procedures(particularly in the Council). Strengthening the monitoring of competencies 6.Strengthening the dialogue between the judges of the European Court of Justice and the national courts(by means of a Joint Chamber of European Supreme Courts); 7.Providing for a review-of-competence action in front of the European Court of Justice with the possibility for the Committee of the Regions to initiate proceedings; 8.Introducing supplementary mechanisms of political control by existing institutions of the way in which competencies are exercised; 9.Introducing mechanisms of control of the way in which competencies are exercised by means of political procedures(reports, an ombudsman for competence- issues). Friedrich Ebert Foundation, International Policy Analysis Unit, Division for International Dialogue, Godesberger Allee 149, D-53170 Bonn; Internet: http://www.fes.de/indexipa.html